pagesvsphasesTell them apart

Which to use

“pages” and “phases” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,370
“pages” frequency rank
#6,330
“phases” frequency rank
7700
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pages phases
Definition Pluriel de page. Pluriel de phase.

Where the eye mixes pages and phases

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
pages
6 ch
phases

Visual trap between pages and phases

A purely visual mix-up. pages (\paʒ\) and phases (\faz\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7700, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pages is recorded at frequency rank #1,370, classified as anoun, pronounced \paʒ\. phases is at rank #6,330, tagged as anoun, pronounced \faz\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 7700, this pair ranks #422,402 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pages vs phases

Shared letters: aeps. Private to "pages": g. Private to "phases": h.

"pages" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "phases" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pagesapges · paegs · pagess · pagges · pagse · pgaes · ppages
  • phaseshpases · pahses · phaess · phasess · phasses · phhases · phsaes · pphases

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pages" and "phases" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\paʒ\ versus \faz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "pages" or "phases" show up more?
"pages" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,370 in our French list, against #6,330 for "phases". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "phases" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #422,402 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pages" and "phases" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pages vs pètes". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #422,402 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list